Linda Dunbrack v. Framingham, City of - Mayor's Office (SPR 20171047)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords August 15, 2017 SPR17/1047 Nichol M. Figueiredo Records Access Officer Town ofFramingham 150 Concord St. Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Ms. Figueiredo: I have received the petition of Linda Dunbrack appealing the response of the Town of Framingham (Town) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Ms. Dunbrack requested "an electronic copy ofthe voters from the April 2017 election" emailed to her. The Town provided a response to Ms. Dunbrack on July 24, 2017 indicating the extract she requested is $1 0 and the request would be processed once they received payment. Claiming to not yet have received a response from the Town for the basis for the fee, Ms. Dunbrack petitioned this office and this appeal was opened as a result. Ms. Dunbrack indicates in her petition the record she requested is "electronic and could easily be extracted in well less than two hours that Framingham would be required to charge outside of the public records law." Please note in assessing a fee for employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or requested records, a municipality with a population over 20,000 people shall not assess a fee for the first two hours of worked performed. G. L. c. 66, § 10 (d )(iii). Further, the fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request and a records access officer shall not assess a copying fee for electronic copies. G. L. c. 66, § IO(d); 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(f). I understand a staff member ofthe Public Records Division spoke with the Town about this matter. Accordingly, the Town is ordered to provide Ms. Dunbrack with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre • pre@sec.state.ma.us

Nichol M. Figueiredo SPR17/1047 Page 2 August 15, 2017 office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec. state.ma. us. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Linda Dunbrack